


a coffee date on a rainy day

by jinrou



Category: K-pop, SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blind Date, First Date, Fluff, M/M, Post-Break Up, SO MUCH FLUFF, but the past relationship is jongho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-19 16:38:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10643859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinrou/pseuds/jinrou
Summary: Blind dates never go well (except this one does).





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the Just Kiss 2017 fest!
> 
> For prompt: 11. gardenia

There's a small vase with a gardenia in it along with a small daisy and some white baby’s breath.

Jonghyun knows this because Kibum's latest hobby is gardening, and Kibum likes to mutter to himself as he's watering and fertilising his “little children”. He even sticks stickers on the pots with names and their species, and Jonghyun really has nothing better to do than study these pots while he's brushing his teeth in the morning.

Actually, the whole thing is Kibum's fault, if he thinks about it. Knowing the flowers in the vase, being at this very table with this vase -- hell, being in this cafe on a perfectly lovely Saturday morning when he could still be in bed.

But, it's also thanks to Kibum that he'd been able to drag himself out of bed for the last week, his mandatory two-week mourning period post-break-up with Minho over. That he wasn't still eating pizza and Thai takeout because they were the only places that didn't get lost while delivering to their apartment, or intimidated by an overly friendly puppy greeting them at the door (or three).

So, it's probably both Kibum's fault and thanks to him that Jonghyun's on this blind date with a "really really nice guy. Like super nice. Like, helps out at the community centre on the weekend nice."

"Yeah, but is he cute?"

"He is," Kibum said firmly, and Jonghyun screwed up his face.

"Like, my kind of cute, or your kind of cute?" Kibum's kind of cute was Alexander McQueen spiked platformed shoes and Jeremy Scott stomped-on raincoat. Jonghyun's kind of cute was Roo and, yes, okay, flowers on coffee tables in cafes while it bucketed down outside.

"Cute, as in, he'd give Comme a run for his money."

On cue, the both look at the pup delicately washing his downstairs, legs spread in a way that Jonghyun was sure he couldn't achieve, nor did he want to try.

"Maybe Garcon cute," Kibum amended. Garcon was lying down on the pillow next to the balcony door, soaking in the sun as he dozed.

Jonghyun liked dogs. He also liked sleeping pups who didn't chew his shoes, like Comme Des liked to do, so he said yes.

 _he's late_ , Jonghyun texts Kibum, and gets an instant reply.

_hes not. youre just early. so impatient._

It's 10:58 and their date is at 11.

_well, he's about to be late._

_im turning off my phone so dont use me an excuse to bail you out if you dont like him ok? just give him a try._

_worst best friend EVER._

"Hi? Are you Jonghyun?"

He's... Jonghyun has to struggle mentally for a couple of second before he concedes that Kibum’s right. He's cute.

He's a bit on the taller side (but not as tall as Minho) and his arms are delicate and un-athletic (unlike Minho). He's dressed in a cream sweater with some monster print that, frankly, looks kind of hideous but is also kind of endearing, with some raindrops sprinkling his right shoulder and hair. With his hair pushed back off his forehead, light brown strands mixed with darker brown, round glasses perched on his nose framing small eyes and rounded cheeks, he’s really quite cute (and very different to Minho) (especially with that hesitant smile).

Kibum _knows_ Jonghyun has a weakness for cute smiles.

"Hi," Jonghyun says, and stands, holding out a hand. "I am. Are you Jinki?"

"I am," Jinki says brightly as he takes Jonghyun’s hand before sitting opposite.

Jinki is sweet. He's quiet and shy at first, taking forever to peruse the menu and choose his meal and drink (pancakes with strawberries and ice cream, cappuccino with no sugar), bringing up mundane topics like the weather (pouring, but Jonghyun loves that) and work (some publishing company, Jonghyun forgets to pay attention for a while because his coffee hasn’t woken him up yet).

"Can I ask you something?" Jonghyun says after they've had silence for 43 seconds (he'd been counting).

"Sure." Damn, that smile is really cute though.

"What are you afraid of?"

Jonghyun still remembers his mother telling his sister this when she’d been getting ready for her first date when she was 14, swiping the blush on her cheeks and fixing her watch to her wrist. Later, Jonghyun had gotten the same treatment, but this time after he’d told her he maybe liked boys. His mother had just pulled him close, putting his head to her chest like she’d done when he was eight and scared from a nightmare, smoothing a hand over his hair.

"Love isn't easy," she'd told him, imparting wisdom. "No matter who, when you meet someone new, you should ask them these three things. With this, you can understand them better." And her smile had been pained, but beautiful.

Jinki answers immediately, like he'd been thinking about it, and his own smile is strained.

"Spiders, mostly. I hate them with their weird, unnatural eight legs. And they’re just _so hairy_. I hate being alone, really, and little children, the ones who are old enough and know their own strength. You know the ones? The ones that push other kids over in the playground. And space. Holy shit, space -- it's just, holy shit."

Jinki's eyes are wide and terrified, and Jonghyun has to bite back a grin.

"You?"

Jonghyun closes his eyes and it's easy.

"Everything," he says, and it pours out of him. "I'm scared of dying, I'm scared of people leaving me. I'm scared of my neighbour who never smiles at her dog, and I'm scared of the dark. I'm scared that I won't be enough for my mother, or my sister, and I'm scared of letting people down."

Jinki smiles at that, and raises his hand, reaching over to the sugar before he bypasses it and rests it on Jonghyun's, lying clenched next to his fork. Minho had been scared of failure and haunted houses, of not living up to his potential. Of not being loved.

"I'm scared of the dark too," Jinki offers. "I'm scared that one day I’ll die with more regrets than achievements, and in a year’s time, my best friend will forget my name.” He laughs, and it’s like shattered glass, prickly and painful.

“I’m afraid that if I leave my dog for longer than a week, she’ll forget me,” Jonghyun confesses, and the laugh coming out of Jinki is genuine this time. “Do you like dogs?”

“I love them,” Jinki says. “You?”

“I live with three, but only one is mine. I love her to bits, though.” Jonghyun’s fingers are already going through his phone’s album, bringing up that photo of Roo from a month ago when she’d fallen asleep on his stomach.

“She’s beautiful,” Jinki says, and his voice is a bit breathless. “I can see why you love her.”

The conversation continues, easier now, and Jonghyun shows Jinki photos of Comme Des and Garcon. The photoes always have Kibum disgruntled in the background after Comme Des had knocked over a flower pot or tipped a bag of flour, white footprints all over the apartment (baking had been Key’s obsession last month).

Jinki is easy to like and get along with, his smile bright and cheerful when it appeared (which was often), and he knew the lamest puns that still, somehow, had Jonghyun cracking up. He was different from Minho, from his fingers to his sense of humour (terrible, but endearing), and from his hobbies (playing the guitar, composing music) to his favourite food (anything spicy, or sweet, or both, preferably).

Jinki is what Jonghyun needs to remind him that a break up isn’t the be all or end all, and that life goes on. That while he had loved Minho, it doesn't mean that he can't fall in love again, even with someone as different as Jinki.

When they exit the cafe and stand at the entrance, the awning shielding them from the rain as they consider the sky, Jonghyun is almost sad for this date to end.

“What do you do when it rains?” Jonghyun asks as he remembers his mother’s final question, even as Jinki shakes out his umbrella next to him.

“Me? Sleep mostly.” Jinki opens his umbrella so it shields them both, linking their arms as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Jonghyun doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he has his own umbrella in his bag.

“When I was a kid, I used to race the rain droplets on the car window.” Jonghyun thinks JInki’s embarrassed laugh is his favourite so far. “When I can, I make a shelter out of plastic in my backyard for all the strays, giving them some food and a place to sleep.”

Jonghyun’s heart fractures a bit at that, and he most definitely thinks he falls in love a little, just on the spot. Jinki looks over and raises an eyebrow, still smiling.

“You?”

“I sleep when it rains, but sometimes I like to sit on the balcony with a cup of tea, Roo on my lap, just reading,” Jonghyun says, remembering today’s original plan, and Jinki hums in agreement. “I usually leave food in the garden in front of our apartment block for the strays, even though we’re not meant to, but I know my roommate does it too.”

Jonghyun laughs as he remembers finding one of Kibum’s carefully labelled plastic containers in the bushes, the remnants of chicken and rice in it. He’d taken it back upstairs and washed it out, deliberately leaving it out on the counter with a packet of cat food next to it, and found it gone the next morning. Kibum, who hated displays of affection and gratitude, had left a scrawled _thank you_ note on the counter, and Jonghyun still has it.

Jinki bumps shoulders, even though it means splashing his own shoulder with some rain.

“Seems like we’re not too different." Jinki pauses as Jonghyun sneaks a sideways glance at him, before he offers, tentatively, "I’d like to see you again."

Something tightens in Jonghyun’s chest even as he realises he hadn’t thought of Minho at all in the last hour.

“I’d love that,” Jonghyun says, and Jonghyun changes his mind.

Jinki’s delighted laugh is his favourite.

 

[Three months later, Jinki asks, “Why’d you ask me those questions on our first date?”

Jonghyun remembers the feeling of his mother’s hand running through his hair, so soft and reassuring, her voice soft in his ear.

How everyone is afraid of something, and if they aren’t, then they don’t really believe in anything, either.

That dogs had a special place in his heart that would make it hard to love someone who didn’t love Roo, too (and Garcon and Comme Des).

And that the rain shows what kind of soul they have; an old, melancholy one, or a kid at heart.

“It told me if we were meant to be together,” Jonghyun says, and he knows the tips of his ears are pink, so he ducks so his cap hides his face.

Jinki pauses before pulling Jonghyun into a hug and sweeping his hat off.

“You are the most adorable person I’ve ever met,” Jinki says, and his cheeks are pink too when he tips Jonghyun’s head up to kiss.]

**Author's Note:**

> based on [this](http://seriosity.tumblr.com/post/87112661033/my-mother-tells-me-that-when-i-meet-someone-i) poem by caitlyn siehl.


End file.
